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5.07.2005

MEMORIES OF MURDER

It’s the Korean Jack the Ripper. Every bit as gruesome, every bit as unsolved. Not that knowing that will muck things up here. City cop and country cop partner to crack the case and it's their story mostly. And the serial killer they dog is like some lash of panic that welts this investigation into smalltown hysteria , this tweaking of odd couple dynamics , this slapstick upending of the police procedural, this many things beyond dull roman a clef , with the throb of sinister goings-on. Scenes tend to achieve grace and some - - - like a set piece in the dead of a rainy night - - - crackle. Soon, delicate balances are struck. Between placid milieu and seething underbubble. Between foreboding creepiness and broad comedy. Between truth and embellishment. Between invisible solution and tantalizing mystery. * * * * *